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Updated: May 24, 2026

Establishing a Mouse Model of a Pure Small Fiber Neuropathy with the Ultrapotent Agonist of Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid Type 1
Published on: February 13, 2018
[Analysis of TRPV1 gene polymorphisms in Spanish patients with neuropathic pain]
Pilar Armero1, Clemente Muriel, Mónica López
1Cátedra Extraordinaria del Dolor, Fundación Grünenthal-Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, España. gonzalez@usal.es
Background And Objective:
The vanilloid receptor TRPV1 is a molecular integrator of painful stimuli. Several recent studies suggest that TRPV1 may play a role in development and maintenance of chronic pain. In an attempt to determine if genotypic variations in TRPV1 gene could be involved in the susceptibility to suffer neuropathic pain we have studied genetic variants of human TRPV1 gene.
Patients And Methods:
We have studied the distribution of Met315Ile and Ile585Val TRPV1 polymorphisms in a total of 440 Caucasian subjects: 232 patients with neuropathic pain and 208 healthy subjects matched by age and sex. The polymorphisms were analyzed with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using TaqMan probes specific for each allele.
Results:
Our results show that the distribution of Met315Ile and Ile585Val genotypes and alleles is similar in patients with neuropathic pain and in healthy subjects. However, the Met315Met genotype is more frequent in females diagnosed as suffering neuropathic pain. No differences were observed when we segregate the patients according to visual analogue scale values.
Conclusions:
The observation of differences in the distribution of Met315Ile TRPV1 genotypes only in females diagnosed of neuropathic pain suggests that this polymorphism, together with other physiological factors such as sex, may influence individual susceptibility to neuropathic pain.
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